Mitchie – Well this was the first time I was in the X Games. It was a lot of fun, the whole week was fun! My whole family flew out and they stayed the week watching every practice. And yeah, during practice I got a 900 in and that got blown up. I guess it was on every commercial for X Games; it was on everything. That was cool – a lot of people were texting and calling me. Like my mom and sisters and brother, I think that was the coolest part actually.

BNQT – Must have been all very exciting…

Mitchie – Yeah basically, I didn’t do very well in the contest. I didn’t do what I wanted to do but it was a lot of fun because of the week. It wasn’t really about the contest for me, it was about the experience of doing X Games.

BNQT – You are fourteen years old right? Can you remember watching your first X Games?

Mitchie – Yeah, I saw Tony Hawk do a 900 and I think that’s the first thing I ever remember of X Games.

Mitchie – Yes, Tony is a really cool guy! I go on trips with him every once in a while. I went to Australia with him, Sweden, and I did some demos in California with him too. And now I’m going to go to New York with him in a couple of weeks.

It’s just fun skating with him. I skate with him at his warehouse. That’s where I skate most of the time. He’s just an amazing guy, he’s really good and the nicest guy you’ll meet. He never puts himself above anyone and he’s always with everyone. I learn from him in skating; he gives me help with tricks, but what I learn the most from him is how he presents himself off the board.

BNQT – How have you progressed so much at such a young age?

Mitchie – Well this just hit recently. Like last October was when I started winning contests. I started skating when I was three so it’s been like ten years of skateboarding. I’ve just been practicing as much as possible; Tony letting me come to his warehouse, Kevin Staab – just being awesome. He skates at the warehouse too.

BNQT – So just in the last year you feel you’ve broken through to that next level?

Mitchie – Yeah…my airs got higher, tricks got a little better, style got a little better. It’s all been just in the last year. I haven’t spent that much time at Woodward or doing anything like that – just skating, skating, skating.

Mitchie – We actually live in Seattle, which is in Washington, but we’re relocating down to San Diego. We’ll be in part of that area, so pretty close to Tony.

BNQT – Back to the mega ramp… it’s one thing to progress and skate the vert ramp, but it’s a big leap to the mega ramp. Describe first steps on the mega ramp and dropping in. Was there fear or did you just go for it?

Mitchie -Well I don’t know if mega is a step from vert. I mean vert definitely helps on the quarter pipe and things like that, getting a feel for it in the air. But it’s just so unbelievably different. If you can skate vert it doesn’t mean you can skate big air and vice versa. I know guys that can skate mega that really don’t kill the vert. It’s just completely different so it’s really hard to compare them.

BNQT – What about the deciding to do it? Did you just wake up one day and say ‘I’m going to drop in on the mega ramp?’

Mitchie – It took some time to set the date up with Bob (Burnquist). He’s just so busy with everything. We finally got there and I didn’t drop in the first day. I just hit the quarterpipe all day long – getting used to it. I had to get used to the speed, it’s so fast. Then I went back another day and I did the same thing, dropping in at the end of the day. On the third day I got everything dialed. It was a three day process, four or five hours a day.

BNQT – And what about the first time you actually dropped in, looking down that huge in-run?

Mitchie – I actually went up a bunch of times without going down. I got scared a lot. It’s really big when we were up there looking down this massive ramp. The launch is actually lower than the landing, so you’re just looking at that and then you look at the quarterpipe. You just have to go I guess. I’m not a ‘no fear’ type of guy, so it was hard for me to do.

BNQT – And the 900? How did you progress from just hitting straight airs to going all the way up to the 900?

Mitchie – It was a process. I skated it about 15 to 16 times before… and yeah I just kinda threw it. It just happened and it worked out really well.

BNQT – Amazing to watch (at X Games)… and all your friends at home, were they all stoked?

Mitchie – Yeah that’s when all the calls started coming in. I made the mistake of not checking my phone for a good 48 hours after the contest. So many voicemails and text messages. I couldn’t even really get the phone to work.

BNQT – What were the immediate after-affects of your exposure at X Games?

Mitchie – It was kind of a slow process from Dew Tour, to demos, to X Games. But now I’m starting to get recognized places; like we went to the US Open of Surfing and I was in the water and people are like ‘Hey aren’t you…?’ It’s just weird.

Brusco – 14-years-old – already a heart throb.

BNQT – And the girls?

Mitchie – Yeah I guess so, like every day my Twitter goes crazy. Every day it’s like ‘I love you!’ or ‘Will you marry me?’, all that stuff.

BNQT – How many new Twitter followers have you gotten since X Games?

Mitchie – The night of the X Games I got 1,000. So I had a 1,000 before that so that put me at 2,000. Now I’m at 4,000 followers. And for Facebook I have 1,000 new friend requests waiting.

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